Quincy granite company has unique piece of Boston history

QUINCY – The granite signs from a famous wharf in Boston have been for sale for more than 30 years. Some people are willing to buy the “Rowe’s,” others would be happy to buy the “Wharf.”

So far, no one is willing to buy both signs, and that is the only way that owner Linda Montillio will sell them.

“I have people come in and say ‘We’ll take half of it’ – either Rowe’s or Wharf,” Montillio, the owner of A. Monti Granite on Centre Street in Quincy, said. “And I say, ‘No, you have to take them together.’”

The signs, each measuring 10 by 2 feet, were crafted about a 100 years ago and came to Quincy in the 1950s, when Boston’s Rowe’s Wharf was undergoing renovations. Montillio said the signs, made of Quincy granite, were going to be scrapped by the wharf’s owner at the time, so A. Monti Granite gladly took ownership of them in hopes of selling them.

All these years later, the signs still haven’t been sold, despite an occasional customer making an offer for one or the other.

Although Montillio, 93, wouldn’t give a sales price, she said there are no other granite signs like them in the country. She said it likely took a stonecutter more than a year to hammer about 3 inches deep along the two slabs, forming the raised lettering.

“That’s an important feature. You wouldn’t see that if you went from here to California,” Montillio said.

Montillio started as a secretary at A. Monti Granite 70 years ago. Her father, Angelo Monti, founded the company after emigrating from Italy to the U.S. in 1910.

A. Monti Granite is a remnant of the city’s once-thriving granite industry that declined once machines replaced some of the human labor and after local granite quarries closed.

Montillio said not only are the Rowe’s Wharf signs examples of an almost extinct form of stonecutting, but they are unique pieces of Boston’s history. Once a key commercial port, Rowe’s Wharf today is a modern mixed-use development that serves as a popular waterfront stop for tourists checking out Boston Harbor.

Mike Curran, chief engineer at The Marina at Rowe’s Wharf, said one of the marina’s security guards who lives in Quincy told him about the old granite signs.

“He must have seen it on his way to work. We were both curious where it came from and why it was there,” Curran said.

Curran said he’d have to talk to his bosses to see if there’s any interest in buying back the granite signs.

Patrick Ronan may be reached at pronan@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @PRonan_Ledger.